TV broadcast ratings play a significantly important role from the viewpoint of an advertiser as well as from the viewpoint of a broadcasting company, and thus TV broadcast ratings are surveyed and widely used in the scheduling of TV broadcast programs or advertising contracts. Accordingly, a method of surveying accurate TV broadcast ratings can be viewed as significantly important.
A method of distributing rating survey devices having a remote controller form to predetermined TV watching homes, allowing channels, to be watched, to be selected using the rating survey devices when TV is watched in the homes, receiving corresponding information using a server, and then collecting ratings has been known as a conventional method of surveying TV broadcast ratings. Furthermore, a separate rating survey device may be distributed to each TV viewer in each home, and statistics information regarding ratings may be calculated for each person or each specific watching group.
However, when the conventional method is used, a problem arises in that it is difficult to collect accurate rating information for each group because the case where the rating survey devices of counterparts are used frequently occurs in a user group in each home. Furthermore, a problem arises in that it is difficult to distribute rating survey devices to many viewers or maintain the rating survey devices because separate rating survey devices are required.
Meanwhile, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2005-0031304 (published on Apr. 6, 2005) relates to “Method of Surveying Digital Broadcast Ratings.” This patent publication discloses a method of surveying digital broadcast ratings, including a tenth step of broadcasting, by a broadcasting station, data, including rating survey request information, together with a broadcast program; a twentieth step of receiving, by a broadcasting receiver, the broadcast program broadcast at the tenth step, separating the data from the broadcast program, and determining whether the data includes the rating survey request information; a thirtieth step of determining a broadcast program watched by a user if it is determined at the twentieth step that the rating survey request information is included; a fortieth step of accessing a rating survey server if the broadcast program watched by the user is determined at the thirtieth step, searching the data for a service identification (ID) corresponding to the broadcast program determined to be watched, and sending the retrieved service ID; and a fiftieth step of storing, by the rating survey server, the service ID of the fortieth step in a database and surveying ratings based on the stored service ID.
However, according to this method, a problem arises in that a broadcast program must be broadcast with data including rating survey request information being included therein. Furthermore, a limitation is imposed in that a broadcasting receiver must receive such data, separate the data, and determine whether the corresponding data is included. Accordingly, the above method is problematic as a broadcast rating survey method in that a data processing process is complicated and a separate reception device intended for the method must be configured and managed.